My friend Jess made a super cozy-looking stroller cozy thing for her toddler, so it was in the back of my mind to make one for Elias and the Chariot, too. Enter the recent cold snap, and the time was at hand.

I brought the Chariot inside, lay some sheets of newspaper in it, and traced the back-and-seat piece and one of the triangular side pieces to make pattern pieces. Then I cut those pieces out of the newspaper, and cut one back-and-seat piece and two side pieces out of some cute coordinating fleece I found (on sale!). I pinned the side pieces to the back and stuck them back in the stroller to ensure a proper fit.

Then I sewed the side pieces to the back, using my pretend serger (a zigzag stitch on my IKEA sewing machine), and stuck the pieces back in the stroller. I cut openings for all the straps of the five-point harness to come through. Then I measured around the open edges to make the front rectangle. I sewed the bottoms of the back, sides, and front piece together first, and then added a long zipper on each side seam of the front piece. I completely forgot the cardinal rule about installing zippers along seams, so my zippers are wont to come apart, but oh well. I sewed two sturdy ribbons to the top of each corner with a box stitch and used those to tie the contraption to the Chariot chassis. I also sewed along the edges of my strap openings and trimmed some fleece from the outside of some curved seams.

It is so cute and snuggly! My child loves it.

Materials included:

about a yard of 60″ fleece

two coordinating zippers

some leftover sturdy ribbon from Williams-Sonoma gift packaging

coordinating thread

I am calling it a buggy bunting, since I often refer to the Chariot as his buggy, and because I enjoy alliteration.